Once the world’s largest enclosed shopping center, Concord’s Sunvalley Mall was a futuristic retail wonder—complete with fountains, fiber-optic flowers, and escalators to everywhere. These vintage postcards take you back to a cooler, tiled time.
Let me tell you a secret. When I was a kid, Sunvalley Mall wasn't just a mall—it was a planet. A self-contained, air-conditioned universe that stretched endlessly in all directions, wrapped in terrazzo and mystery, and echoing with the whispers of escalators and the chime of the JCPenney intercom.
Sunvalley Mall opens in 1967: a new era of shopping in Concord
Sunvalley opened on August 3, 1967, and back then, they weren’t subtle about it. No, no. They called it the world's largest enclosed shopping center—two levels of pure retail bliss designed by Avner Naggar and developed by Bayshore Properties. The ribbon cutting featured none other than the famous singer Tony Martin. The mall had everything: a cinema, an ice rink below ground (arrived in 1969), department stores big enough to have their own weather systems, and a parking lot that could swallow 9,000 cars whole. And because it was the future, it was also fully air-conditioned. That was important enough to stamp on the back of postcards.
Postcards from the past: a mid-century mall in Kodachrome
Those dreamy snapshots from the late ’60s and ’70s, shot in perfect Kodachrome, now live in my collection like old valentines.
Aerial view and retro promises
One postcard shows the mall from above—looking southeast, Mount Diablo in the background, I-680 a quiet freeway. No Willows Shopping Center. No Ellinwood office park. Just grasses, wild mustard, and that gleaming retail monolith rising like a spaceship from a cow field.
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| A sea of concrete and asphalt surrounds the gleaming Sunvalley Mall, with Mount Diablo rising quietly in the distance. Circa 1974, when retail was king and this Concord landmark reigned as the world’s largest enclosed shopping center. |
The back of the card reads:
"Sunvalley Shopping Center. An aerial of the newest and most modern shopping centers in the U.S.A. It is completely enclosed and air conditioned."
The card was postmarked February 24, 1975. Back when it cost 8 cents to mail a postcard! Near Penney's, a wooden fence surrounds a cement courtyard that allowed you to see the roof of the ice rink underground. This "hole" became a restaurant pad by 1968. I think Macy's still has the blue awnings. Timeless, they might say.
Chrome, wagons, and 9,000 spaces: parking lot perfection
You'd never know the mall was two stories from this postcard; the lower level is underground (least on this side of the mall). If you look closely, you can see "Cinema" on the side, by Bank of America. It has been said that the first movie to show at the cinema was the Dirty Dozen. The back of the postcard reads "SunValley, the world's largest enclosed, air conditioned shopping center, contains free parking for 9,000 cars, including 16 acres of covered parking."
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| Sunvalley Mall’s vast parking lot hums with life—chrome bumpers and wood-paneled wagons gleaming under the California sun. JCPenney anchors the foreground, Macy’s looms behind, and a fleet of late ’60s and early ’70s cars stands ready for a day of shopping. |
Center Court with fiberglass flowers and blooming dandelion lights
In a postcard, a woman pushes a Baza’r cart through the center, even though Baza’r wasn’t in the mall (it was a discount store up the road). Go figure. But the real stars of the shot were the giant light fixtures—bulbous bursts of chrome and filaments, like space-age dandelions mid-explosion. And in the center? Those giant metal sculptures that rose from the fountain below, more palm tree than public art, unless you squinted just right.
The postcard promises: "Over 120 stores on two levels of the mammoth mall at Sun Valley, the world's largest enclosed, air-conditioned shopping center."
A friend wrote on it: “Mary, we should do this shopping center together some day! Spent 3 hours there Monday and hardly scratched the surface.”
Mary Carello of Syracuse: this one’s for you.
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| Center Court in full Sunvalley splendor—gold-topped information booth gleaming, dandelion-inspired light fixtures blooming overhead, and a mother navigating the terrazzo floors with a shopping cart and wide-eyed child in tow. A perfect moment of 1970s retail wonder. |
This second-series postcard allows you to see all the way down to Sears.
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| A few years later, but the magic’s still there—Center Court aglow under the pop of a camera flash. The gold-capped info booth still stands, the space-age dandelion lights still sparkle, and shoppers flow past in a softened blur of bell bottoms and weekend plans. Sunvalley in its prime. |
The dills and dandelions fountain
Ah yes. Copper coins and childhood wishes. I remember tossing pennies into the black stone fountain, watching them tumble through the water like tiny suns.
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| Brobdingnagian—The lower level center court in all its colossal glory. Fiberglass flowers tower from the fountain below, sprouting 40 feet into the air, swaying with hidden fans and watched over by gleaming metal bugs. Part sculpture, part spectacle—pure Sunvalley. |
The back of the card reads: "Sunvalley Shopping Center. 'Dills and Dandelions' feature dandelions and various other petaled flowers on 40 foot fiberglass stems. These flowered kinetics are rooted in the first level main fountain and shoot through a large airway into the second level Great Hall. They will move and sing when air is blown on them from hidden fans. Six-foot long attractive metal bugs cling to several of the flowers lending a Brobdingnagian atmosphere to the Great Hall." (I had to look that up. It means really big.)
The escalator to the dungeon
This next card shows the center court, taken near the portals to the lower level (we affectionately called "the dungeon" in the early 80s). Visible is the B. Dalton Bookseller, which ultimately relocated between Macy's and Penney's.
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| Escape from the dungeon—A view from the upper level of Sunvalley’s center court, where escalators rise from the shadowy lower floor. Shoppers ascend into a world of terrazzo, chrome lightbursts, and retail wonder. The 1970s never looked so futuristic. |
JCPenney Court and escalators
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| Up from the Dungeon—A vintage view of Sunvalley Mall’s upper level, where escalators delivered shoppers from the shadowy lower floor into the bright bustle of JCPenney. The classic blue “Penney’s” sign shines like a beacon of 1970s retail bliss. |
Here we have another beautiful postcard showing the JCPenney court in Sunvalley Mall.
Boy howdy do I remember those escalators. The handrails were grey with ridges. I don't know WHY I remember that, but I do. It wouldn't surprise me if they haven't replaced the handrail track, yet.
The classic "Penney's" logo displays, with its "P" in blue. That sign survived intact until the Nineties! Even Sears had updated their red classic-script sign by then. On the lower level in this area was the food court, which was removed at some point. I'd love to find a photo of that, since it's just a blurry memory. It wouldn't surprise me if there is a postcard floating around with it (I'll keep my eyes peeled).
JCPenney Court and the roosters
Things you often forget, but cause an immediate memory jog: mall art. This first-series postcard was postmarked 1974. It was taken from the Penney's Court. If only we could see the cinema, ice rink, and Anna Miller's Pies on the lower level.
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| “Roosting in Retail”—A rare postcard glimpse of Sunvalley Mall’s elusive rooster sculptures, perched mysteriously in the shadows of the upper Penney's Court. Dimly lit and oddly majestic, they were equal parts folk art and fever dream. |
Let's face it, the photo needed flash. In the second series of cards, now we can see the art. Having discounted the notion that artwork in a mall is wasted on the young, I am converted.
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| “Fowl Play Revealed”—With the camera flash on, Sunvalley Mall’s rooster sculptures finally emerge from the gloom. Bold, bizarre, and unmistakably 1970s, they watched over shoppers like silent, oversized sentinels of suburban art. |
The Sears Court?
Well, that one had a fountain too—a mission padre or monk in its center. I remember him, calmly blessing the shoppers. He vanished in the renovations, sacrificed to the new lower-level entrance to Sears. Back when the mall first opened, Sears had only one entrance from the mall on the upper level. A lonely staircase connected shopping with the lower level. It was a bit like entering a side-quest in a video game.
Sunvalley Mall's renovations and logo redesigns
The mall started a series of renovations in 1981 when Emporium-Capwell joined the mall, and continued through the 1980s.
From terrazzo to tile: the post-remodel era
After the remodel, it's like none of it existed. Can't say I miss the dungeon feel, though.
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| Center Court, Reimagined—The once-cosmic heart of Sunvalley Mall shines bright with holiday spirit. Wide open spaces, garlands draped high, and Macy’s standing sentinel remind us: the mall may change, but December magic remains eternal. |
Although I love the new tiles floors, I also miss those dark terrazzo floors.
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| Sunvalley Mall today: bright, clean, and refreshed—a modern shopping hub that’s shed its retro shadows for a crisp new era. |
The iconic 1989 Sunvalley logo
Oh, I loved that logo. It was sleek and geometric, a Taubman special—simple, modern, confident. Like the mall itself still had something to prove, even after all those years. The directory it adorned sat in my lap for hours as I mapped out my circuitous route inside the mall.
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| Logo on front of a 1989 Sunvalley Mall directory. |
The legacy of Sunvalley Mall: then and now
Sunvalley Mall is still here. Still bustling. Still changing. But sometimes, I close my eyes and see it as it once was: a temple of light and tile and endless escalators. Where the fountains sang, the bugs were bigger than your head, and the air was always, miraculously, cool.
Related posts
- Lost department stores of the Bay Area: Emporium-Capwell (1896—1996)
- The history of Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek — a classic East Bay landmark
- The history of Somersville Towne Center in Antioch — teetering on the edge
Comments
The food court was downstairs on the east side next to Penneys. There is a corridor leading to an outside door that contains restaurants today(or did ten years ago) That door used to lead directly into the food court.
There also used to be a Lyon's restaurant inside Macys. It would have been on the SW corner of the main level and you could enter it from the west parking lot off of Contra Costa Blvd.
In my opinion the plane crash had little effect on the remodeling of Sunvalley. By this time the mall was pushing 20 and was already due for an upgrade to keep up with Stoneridge and to a lesser extent, Hilltop.
And hey, did you happen to notice they mentioned Bayshore Properties as the co-developer? I was beginning to wonder if you thought I made that up.
SunValley didn't have as much room to work with as other malls did. They had parking on two levels from day one which actually turned out to be a smart thing, as you never had to walk a long distance from your car. The one downside though(as you've said) is that it's a LONG mall.
Some developers might have opted to go far to the edge of town and get as much cheap land as possible, but as you can see by the aerial photo plenty of growth had already occured despite the open spaces. Because of this, SunValley was already quite centrally located and didn't have to wait for everyone to move out there.
But I think the main thing that's kept SunValley so strong is that the demographics have stayed constant all these years. It's always been a solid mix of middle to upper middle class and affluent. This is largely due to the attractiveness of the Diablo Valley. The climate, location, and beauty make it an area that people want to go to despite the crowds.
SunValley's also had little REAL competition, in my opinion. Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek is really the only alternative and they were wise to differentiate themselves a long time ago by going upscale. Any other shopping centers are either too far or don't have the selection that SunValley has. And while the area has plenty of "big box" retailers, they're somewhat scattered and don't pose the threat they would if they were all in one location like Dublin's Hacienda Crossings.
The one thing that I might see changing this is Concord's evolving ethnic mix. But from what I've read, Concord officials are doing all they can to improve things in the lower income areas by working within the community and not just doing a massive redevelopment project.
Flat out, it's just a great area!
Lyon's, as in the coffee shop? I don't recall that at all. But then again, we never ate there.
For some reason, I pictured the Copper Penney next to Penney's. Maybe it was to first get money at Bank of America.
I do recall they knocked a building down for the new Willow Pass onramp. I guess I don't remember anything more than that! :)
Scott
The first question I have is was this just a custom, or did California have "blue laws", as other parts of the country did and still do when it comes to liquor?
(I visited Dallas, TX in 1983 and malls were still closed on Sunday there)
My second question is about when did this change in California? I seem to recall shopping centers being open on Sundays during the holiday season and closing again when it was over. But if there were laws in place, I would think that couldn't have happened.
And speaking of liquor, who remembers when you couldn't buy alcohol on election day? I distinctly remember being in the Lucky Store at the El Cerrito Plaza and seeing the whole liquor aisle roped off becuase it was election day.
Scott
I remember that plane crash well! I was 15. I was visiting here (where I live) and was listening to the radio, in the dark, unable to sleep. They mentioned something about it and I sat straight up in bed. All I could think about was them kids! It happened near the spot where Santa sat at. In fact a couple weeks earlier, my little brother had stood in line there and had his photo taken with Santa! When we got back to WC, and I went to the mall, they had big drapes made of plastic hung over the center of the mall, and you had to walk thru Macys to get to the other side of the mall. Macy's had their carpet all torn out and the place looked horrible. It was an eerie feeling when you walked thru.
I loved that mall! Someday I hope to visit the Bay Area again, to relive the happy memories and I will for sure visit that mall! Thanks for the pics. it brought back memories!
In SC we have that blue law. We used to have ALL stores closing on Sundays. Now they open at 1. Walmart 24 hours stores grocery side stays open on Sun morning, but the domestic side shuts down. They put a rope across where you can't get thru! If you are at W-mart shopping for clothes at 11 PM Sat. nite and you have a clothing item in your buggy after 12 am, I don't think you can't buy it. If I am not mistaken. I might be wrong. But one year we found out at the last min. that my son's Easter suit was too small, and I went to Walmart and they had already shut down that side, and the lady told me that even if I snuck thru and got an outfit, I couldn't buy it. Which sucks. That is why they have diapers in the baby side and the grocery side.
I think I remember that 5 and dime type store next to Sears. Was it on the left side, after passing the escalators? Um, they tried accusing me of shoplifting one day. They told me not to ever go in that store again! I was mad. I was not stealing. In fact I was counting my money when the lady was calling for help (some other kid was stealing). I told the lady (that came up to help) to search my bags if she wanted to. IDK why the lady who called for help didn't tell her that it was not me!
It scared the crud outta me b/c I was with a friend not too long ago, at Sears, when she was caught stealing, and naturally since I was with her, I had to go back too-and so it brought back nightmares!